Development Control Committee - Hard slog but worth it!

I had the pleasure of talking to Pat Whittacker from Jubilee Church this morning. They are playing a vital role in the community supporting people who would otherwise fall through the net including local working girls, ethnic minority groups and addicts. I look forward to meeting Pat and finding out more about their project. They have just purchased China 88 and are doing it up. Volunteers are helping with painting. We discussed the work done by offenders for the project and I am hoping they may be able to help the skateboard park project in Wyndham Park.

It was a hard slog on Development Control Committee today. We started at 12am with a look at late papers and did not get out of the meeting until 7pm. It is a day of treading on egg shells when every decision must be carefully considered and justified. Yet, there is a great sense of satisfaction when you feel you have weighed things up and done something right. Locally the residents of Lodge Way, protesting at the proposal to build a block of flats, overlooking their homes, must be breathing a sigh of relief. 


I raised a Point of Information in Any other Business highlighting that the Association of Labour Councillors are communicating with SKDC Monitoring officer regarding the refusal to allow some councillors to vote. The issue came up again today and caused some heated debate when an experienced councillor was barred from speaking or voting on a matter because he had missed one meeting.

I abstained from a vote on a poultry factory farm near Allington. It is not possible to oppose a development on animal welfare grounds. Perhaps it should be.